What Does Jeremiah 31:23 Mean in the King James?
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity; The LORD bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The restored land is named as a place where alignment is inhabited and set-apartness rises like a mountain.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s blessing settles over Judah as a lived place: justice is its dwelling, and set-apartness its mountain. This word speaks now wherever restoration is taking shape, not as a return to mere familiarity, but as a life whose ground can hold alignment and whose height is devoted to God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that restoration means only getting back what was lost: the return is named by the justice that can be inhabited and the set-apartness that rises above the city.
THE ROOT
צֶדֶק
tsedeq
GROWS FROM
צ־ד־ק
ṣ-d-q
Alignment, rightness, being in proper order.
The word carries more than a legal verdict: it names an alignment that can be inhabited. The verse makes that alignment the dwelling of a restored people, turning justice into the character of a place.
ALSO GROWS
tsaddiq: Righteous, just; one who is in the right.
צַדִּיק
The same alignment can describe a person, showing that the verse’s justice is embodied in the life of its people.
tsedaqah: Righteousness, justice, alignment.
צְדָקָה
This branch names alignment as something expressed in lived relations, carrying the verse’s justice beyond a title for the land.
קֹדֶשׁ
qodesh
GROWS FROM
ק־ד־שׁ
q-d-sh
Set apart, consecrated.
Holiness here is set-apartness rising like a mountain, part of the landscape itself. Beside justice as a dwelling, it shows restoration shaping both the place people inhabit and what that place is devoted to.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart, sacred.
קָדוֹשׁ
The adjective shows the mountain as marked out for a distinct purpose, not simply elevated ground.
miqdash: Sanctuary, a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
This branch makes the link between set-apartness and place concrete: the verse’s mountain belongs to the same word family as a sanctuary.
THE PATTERN
Restoration takes shape when alignment becomes a shared way of life and the place itself is set apart.
And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.Thus saith the LORD; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of the LORD of hosts the holy mountain.Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.THE THREAD
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.The word rendered “righteousness” shares the same root as “justice” here: alignment is not only a verdict but a path one is led along. The psalm’s restoration echoes Jeremiah’s, making justice a lived route through life.
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